1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to systems and methods for assessing oral cavities and more particularly to an assessment process for oral mucosal damage caused by high dose chemotherapy/radiotherapy post treatments.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, emphasis is currently being placed on improving medical diagnosis while, at the same time, decreasing the cost for the examinations. For various conditions, the progress of a particular treatment is monitored and assessed on a regular basis to determine the effectiveness of that treatment. Typically, assessments of a given treatment will require hospital visits since these assessments are performed by specialists via visual inspection, and as such, the cost for monitoring the patients is significant. For example, one side effect of high dose chemotherapy/radiotherapy is oral mucosal damage. In as few as 12 hours after a high dose chemotherapy/radiotherapy treatment, symptoms of oral mucositis can be observed in a patient.
Oral mucositis is a painful problem that can affect the consumption of food and liquids by the high dose chemotherapy/radiotherapy patient. Treatments to reduce the oral mucositis are available; however, as previously mentioned, regular assessments are required to identify the best treatment. Typically, there are eight areas that should be evaluated in patient's mouth, which are (1) upper labial mucosa (e.g., upper lip), (2) mandibular labial mucosa (e.g., lower lip), (3) right buccal mucosa (e.g., right cheek), (4) left buccal mucosa (e.g., left cheek), (5) right lateral and ventral tongue, (6) left lateral and ventral tongue, (5) floor of the mouth and (8) soft palate.